Mt. Vernon Man to Serve 18 Years in Prison On Two Drug Charges

JEFFERSON COUNTY — A 26-year-old Mt. Vernon man was sentenced Thursday in Jefferson County court to 18-years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after he pleaded guilty in two separate drug-related cases.

Sharif Stuckey pleaded guilty to Class X felony delivery of between 15 and 100 grams of cocaine in exchange for a Class 2 felony charge of possessing narcotics being dismissed.

He was sentenced in that 2018 case to 12 years in prison, which is to be served consecutively to a six-year sentence handed down Thursday in a 2016 case.

In that case, Stuckey pleaded guilty to one of two counts of Class 2 felony possession of narcotics, in exchange for the second count being dismissed.

Stuckey has been held in the Jefferson County Jail since his most recent arrest in April, when the High Risk Team executed a search warrant at his Herbert Street home in Mt. Vernon.

The warrant was the result of a Mt. Vernon Police Department Narcotics Division investigation. Officers reportedly seized rock or “crack” cocaine, powder cocaine, and cash from the dwelling.

The 2016 charges resulted from a joint operation by the Mt. Vernon Police Department/Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Joint Narcotics Division.

Stuckey was one of approximately two-dozen people wanted on drug-related warrants stemming from the Narcotics Division’s investigations.

Plea negotiations in the cases were put on hold Friday when the defense attorney raised a bona fide doubt as to his clients mental fitness to stand trial.

A fitness evaluation was ordered and a status hearing on that evaluation was scheduled for September 4. However, a jury trial was scheduled for Thursday and instead resulted in a plea agreement.